Our People
RAI equips emerging AI experts with skills to develop and deploy accountable AI that positively impacts society, government and industry. Integrating ethical and privacy-related concerns in AI technology applications is aligned with innovative global market trends and is increasingly necessary for compliance with new regulations.
RAI Program Committee (Advisory Board)
Providing performance input and guidance, the RAI program committee sets performance and evaluation indicators and suggests strategic changes. Confirmed committee members are leaders in their respective fields and include:
- Dr. Ebrahim Bagheri (RAI Program Director (external link) and Professor, Toronto Metropolitan University)
- Dr. Animashree Anandkumar (external link) (Director of Machine Learning Research at NVIDIA and Caltech – Industry)
- Dr. David Lie (external link) (Director of the Schwartz Reisman Institute for Technology and Society)
- Dr. Elissa Strome (external link) (Executive Director, Pan-Canadian AI Strategy and CIFAR AVP Research – Community/Non-Profit)
- Ashley Casovan (external link) (Executive Director, Responsible AI Institute – Community/Non-Profit)
Key Researchers
Our world-class researchers are from diverse gender and identity backgrounds. They bring strong theoretical and practical AI contributions with views of ethical, legal and societal AI challenges complementary to engineering.
| Name | Research Theme | Institution |
|---|---|---|
| Robin Cohen | AI Ethics by Design | University of Waterloo (external link) |
| Faezeh Ensan | AI Accountability | Toronto Metropolitan University |
| Benjamin Fung | Privacy-enhanced Analytics | McGill University (external link) |
| Sébastien Gambs | Privacy-enhanced Analytics | Université du Québec à Montréal (external link) |
| Maura Grossman | AI Ethics by Design | University of Waterloo (external link) |
| Qinmin (Vivian) Hu | Privacy-enhanced Analytics | Toronto Metropolitan University |
| Zack Marshall | Privacy-enhanced Analytics | University of Calgary (external link) |
| Reihaneh Rabbany | AI Ethics by Design | McGill University (external link) |
| Joanna Redden | AI Ethics by Design | University of Western Ontario (external link) |
| Frauke Zeller | AI Accountability | Toronto Metropolitan University |
Collaborators
Responsible AI requires broad consultation with stakeholders from diverse backgrounds. Therefore, RAI enlists renowned collaborators from civil society, government, industry and academia. To become a collaborator, please contact Ebrahim Bagheri.
- Jennifer MacLean (Director, Next Generation Manufacturing Canada)
- Valentine Goddard (Founder, AI Impact Alliance)
- Francisco Ibanez-Carrasco (Manager, Universities Without Walls)
- Abhishek Gupta (Founder, Montreal AI Ethics Institute) is also part of the industry stream
- Mahmoud Azimaee (Information Management Director, Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences)
- Cyril Goutte (Senior Research Officer, NRC)
- Rim Khazall (Policy Analyst, Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat)
- Bruce Spencer (Senior Research Officer, NRC)
- Abhishek Gupta (Machine Learning Engineer, Microsoft)
- Freddy Lecue (Chief AI Scientist, Thales)
- Mohammad Norouzi (Staff Scientist, Google Brain)
- Iosif-Viorel Onut (Principal R&D Strategist, IBM Canada)
Academic Collaborators
The following academic collaborators will be key to the RAI training program:
- Dominic Martin (UQAM Professor with expertise in ethics and algorithmic accountability)
- Elizabeth Patitsas (McGill Professor with expertise in gender and STEM)
- Hugo Cyr (UQAM Professor with expertise in research on diversity and democracy)
- Javad Ghatta (TMU Researcher with expertise in cultural studies and humanities computing)
- Marie-Jean Meurs (UQAM Professor with expertise in humanistic AI)
- Max Evans (McGill Professor with expertise in Information/Knowledge Management and Trust)
- Gillian Hadfield (Professor of Government and Policy and Professor of Computer Science at Johns Hopkins University)